Sri Lankan Supreme Court Judge Moves Karnataka High Court Over Defamatory Online Articles

Bengaluru: A judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, Justice A.H.M.D. Nawaz, has approached the Karnataka High Court seeking directions to remove allegedly defamatory articles published online against him.

The petition requests the court to order the removal of certain reports that the judge claims are false, malicious and damaging to his reputation.

Hearing the writ petition, a bench led by Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum issued notices to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Google India, Google Inc., and two Sri Lankan news portals — Colombo Telegraph and Lanka eNews — asking them to respond to the allegations raised in the petition.

In his plea, Justice Nawaz alleged that false and baseless defamatory reports were published about him in 2015 and again in 2020. According to the petition, the articles contained misleading information that harmed his reputation and professional standing.

The judge also explained why he chose to approach an Indian court instead of filing a case in Sri Lanka. Since he currently serves as a judge of the Sri Lankan Supreme Court, filing a petition before courts in his own country could lead to a potential conflict of interest.

He cited the principle that a person should not be involved in deciding a case related to their own grievance. In view of this legal principle, he decided to approach the Karnataka High Court for relief.

Justice Nawaz further claimed that certain online news portals had deliberately published malicious content about him by misrepresenting a legal opinion he had delivered earlier while serving as the head of the Sri Lankan Court of Appeal.

According to the petition, the legal opinion was quoted out of context and used to publish defamatory material targeting him personally. The petition also argues that the Constitution of India extends the right to live with dignity even to foreign nationals.

On that basis, the judge has requested the Karnataka High Court to consider his plea and provide relief by directing the removal of the allegedly defamatory material.

Justice Nawaz also stated in the petition that despite issuing notices to Google regarding the content, the articles in question have not been removed from online platforms. Therefore, he has urged the court to direct the concerned platforms and publishers to immediately take down the offensive and defamatory material.

The High Court is expected to hear the matter further after receiving responses from the respondents.

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